Standing Cloud's Application Layer for the SoftLayer Cloud

When we first came across the SoftLayer Cloud, we were impressed by the breadth of what it allowed the user to do through a web browser. Beyond the basic infrastructure capabilities of provisioning servers and storage (that you can find from other providers), the SoftLayer console and API allow full access to the networking, security, and server console capabilities of the system. It's as though you can take over the mind of a network administrator and have him or her do your bidding.

A host of networking features that come with the offering with the offering were especially exciting to us (see the end of this post for details). Now, when I say "us," I mean our Founding System Architect, Joel Wampler. Joel breathes network protocols, eats open source technology stacks for most of his meals and speaks in Linux command line. I, in contrast, wouldn't have the first idea how to make good use of those network features, but his amazement was enough to be contagious. I'm a software developer by trade, not a systems or network architect, and increasingly I'm mostly a business user ... And as I've transitioned to more of a business-centric focus, I've become the target demographic for Standing Cloud. The distinction between business users in a technical company and technical users in a business are why the Standing Cloud service is so powerful on the SoftLayer Cloud.

For business users and application developers, what we call the "dark cloud" (IaaS without an application layer) is not very useful and relatively intimidating. Business users primarily want SaaS - the ability to use applications without any consideration of the mechanics. Developers want APaaS or PaaS - the ability to customize existing applications or build them from scratch, without any (or much) consideration of the underlying technology stack or infrastructure.

Standing Cloud delivers all of this, the way it ought to be, on the SoftLayer Cloud. An end user can deploy a pre-packaged application in minutes with just a few clicks. We incorporate best practices so you take advantage of all the Standing Cloud and SoftLayer capabilities without having to know about them. As a developer, you can deploy one of these applications and then customize the code without having to think about system security configuration, memory parameters or other system administration issues. Just sync with your repository on Github or Subversion and the code will be uploaded and ready to run.

These "startup" benefits are just the beginning, though. Standing Cloud makes it easy to "move" your application - to a different server if you need more (or less) capacity, to a shared server if you are a solution provider and want to reduce the cost to your clients, or to a "test drive" if you want to experiment with an upgrade or code changes but don't want to affect the production deployment. We monitor the application and its status 24x7, and you receive notifications if it is down or performing slowly - and optionally, we can automatically revive it on a new server if the situation warrants.

If you want to open the hood, you can. Because of the way Standing Cloud deploys and manages applications, an adventurous end-user can easily access the application code and the PaaS layer. And a developer who has a special need can dive into the infrastructure layer through our browser based terminal window. Unlike most SaaS and PaaS systems, Standing Cloud keeps these details out of your hair but does not prevent you from accessing and changing them.

If you are just getting started with the SoftLayer Cloud, and you are not a system administrator, I highly recommend that you explore the Standing Cloud Application Network. Instead of being faced with the "dark cloud," you'll have more than 80 application choices (and we take requests if your favorites aren't included yet!). For developers, we offer language support for Java, Ruby, PHP, and Python.

If you are a system administrator and an existing SoftLayer customer, you may want to consider Standing Cloud as a time saver. There are so many powerful (and challenging!) capabilities to manage on SoftLayer for your complex, mission critical applications. Is deploying and locking down a server running Drupal or SugarCRM the best use of your time?

Finally, we would love to hear from you. Send an email to support@standingcloud.com, and tell us what you need, how you want to use the cloud, and what we could do better. Our users drive our product evolution, so please tell us what you think!

And for those of you who are curious about the network features I mentioned Joel salivating over at the start of the post, here are a few highlights:

Up to Gigabit speeds both internally and to the Internet

Private IP blocks are assigned as a VLAN so that other customers cannot access them

IPv6 capable

Free inbound bandwidth, and 1000GB of outbound bandwidth included

Ability to share an IP address across multiple machines (excellent for high availability solutions)

This guest blog series highlights companies in SoftLayer's Technology Partners Marketplace. These Partners have built their businesses on the SoftLayer Platform, and we're excited for them to tell their stories. New Partners will be added to the Marketplace each month, so stay tuned for many more come.